


Juicey Juicequest

by Paech



Series: marylonde family shenanigans [9]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Family Fluff, Gen, Human/Troll Hybrids (Homestuck), Uncle-Niece Relationship, kid drawings made by littol creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-18
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 09:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25847605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paech/pseuds/Paech
Summary: Lilith goes on a quest for juicy juice and learns about Paradox Space a little.
Relationships: Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam
Series: marylonde family shenanigans [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1115205
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Juicey Juicequest

5:17pm. No black sheen car parked in the designated driveway or fresh pack of cold juice boxes sitting appetizingly on the counter. Both Rose and Kanaya were out shopping for much needed groceries; only condiments and containers filled with something entirely different than what the tin said littered the fridge. There were evaporated milk bottles, she supposed, but those were strictly for her baby sister Spica and wouldn't even be as nearly as nutritious and refreshing as a grape juicebox anyways. 

Rose and Kanaya had offered, quite insistently, that Lilith joined them on their shopping trip, but the hybrid adamantly refused. She didn't want to walk around idly all day and watch with sulken bored eyes as her troll mother hesitated between what shampoo scent she should purchase. She had much better things to do in fact! Not boring grown up chores! Though, with Lilith deciding to stay home, this resulted in a ill at ease Rose tasking Dave to babysitting duties, not bearing to risk leaving her seven year old alone - not even for ten minutes. But it wasn't just Rose who was nearing a solicitous parent; Kanaya easily fit the bill - always had when Lilith was just a baby, going so as far to even babyproof her sharp as a pencil horns with cotton balls. Lilith had no doubt Kanaya wouldn't stop treating her like a delicacy anytime soon. Honestly, Lilith wouldn't have minded the excessive smothering as much as she did if Kanaya kept the actions at home and in private, where her friend and cousin weren't around to see the stained lipstick visible as day on her cheek and laughing until their faces tinged teal and red respectively. 

She was immensely grateful for and adored her troll mother more than anything; but around others, publicly, she never felt more embarrassed. 

Dave was completely slouched and out cold on the couch, cheek pressed against his forearm and his shades were slightly skewed from his face. This was rare; for Dave to be unconscious on the babysitting job instead of providing unheeding fun. Lilith frowned, completely bored out of her mind and thirsty for juice!

Though apparently, behind those dark shades, Dave wasn't fully submerged in his siesta. 

"Lilith, what are you doing standing in the middle of the living room?" Dave mumbled out, his voice sluggish and slow. A bit startled, Lilith whipped her attention back to Dave, before her bored expression quickly settled right back onto her face. 

"Not waiting for you to wake up and getting off your butt, that's surely it." Lilith replied sarcastically. Dave discharged an amused chuckle, stretching his arm over and above his head. 

"You're getting good at using sarcasm," Dave said, rubbing his eyes awake with two fingers. "Knew you'd fit right into it. A growing boy has gotta have his rest though, check back in like...10 minutes." 

"You're 25 years old! More like overgrown." Lilith huffed, flitting her eyes to the side. 

Dave gestured to himself. "I need a few great extra inches to my height, only way to achieve that is sleeping like a bug in a rug." 

"Just drink milk, mama says it helps boosts your bones and makes you grow bigger," Lilith said insightfully. "Besides, you're already tall anyways. Not as tall as mama though." 

"Drinking too much can turn your bones into milk." Dave replied, earning an expression from the hybrid that told him she didn't even remotely believe him. "Serious." he added. 

"How come my bones haven't turned then? I drink chocolate milk all the time." Lilith perked an investigating eyebrow as she gave her head a little tilt. 

"Only plain milk does the trick, the chocolate disintegrates the milk bone hormones."

Lilith's disbelief started wavering, eyes growing concerned and wide. Her hands came up to tug nervously at the bow wrapped around her neck. 

"And what about....Spica? Milk is all she can eat." 

Dave looked at Lilith with his trademark poker face, trying to strain it as serious as he could, letting the silence settle between them for a moment before he shattered his niece's world. 

"Why do you think babies are so soft and wriggly?" 

Green eyes seized into small discs, the rhythmic thumping of Lilith's heart coming to a halt with fear dousing over her. Quickly, Lilith turned on her heel, but Dave jumped and steadied a hold on her before she could dash. 

"Woah, woah, what's wrong Lily?" Dave squawked, trying to maintain the squirmy hybrid.

"I NEED TO SEE IF SPICA IS OKAY!" Lilith yelped, shimming out of her uncle's arms only to be snatched back. "UNCLE DAVE, LET GO!" 

If Rose and Kanaya were to find out about this once they arrived home, he'd get eldritch monsters ordained after him. Dave still had a good few minutes to calm Lilith down before they came back from the grocery store, thankfully.

"She's alright, kiddo, honest." Dave reassured with a pat to her head. 

"But - but her bon-bones, they're-they're-they're mmmm..." her words stuttered and slipped, with a crack to her voice that indicated tears were near to come. Dave cringed back as his worries lurched up. _Shit._

"Spica's bones are perfectly fine and still made out of tissue and like protein," Dave quelled, a sweat racing down his temple. "We can even go to the doctors and take xrays if you don't believe me." 

The squirms suddenly froze at this, which Dave took as a sign it'd be okay to loosen his arm trap. 

Lilith sniffed sharply, turning her head up at Dave with glassy eyes. "Really?" she said quietly, voice just as small as she is. 

"Yeah."

"Let's go to the doctors right now." Lilith stated, quite insistently. She pushed away from Dave's already loose hold, heading to the living room table stand where a line of shoes sat underneath. Dave fumbled for a second, stepping over to her in the blink of an eye and blocking her from retrieving her shoes. 

"Can't. Your baby sis is asleep, and if we wake her she'll turn into a ticking cry bomb once she sees your moms aren't home." 

Lilith's face crumpled up into a frown. "But we need to make sure Spica is okay!" 

"I promise she is." Dave said. Sudden clawed swipes slashed at his ankle, garnering him to jump in place and whip his head down to see Lilith's kitten Edgar; making as much trouble as he always does, and apparently deciding to make of his feet as a hunting toy. 

Dave sucked in a sharp breath as Edgar continued to bite at his ankle, which only left his attention on his niece unattended and a successful chance for her to escape from his grip. 

Lilith quickly ditched from his arms, putting a few spaces between them for much required interrogation. 

"How do you know if Spica is okay?" Lilith asked, perking an eyebrow up along with a tilt of her head. He voice was monotonous, or at least an attempted tone, mimicking as she'd seen on TV. "If you don't answer, Edgar is going to do something even worse."

Dave took a moment to respond, trying to conjure a reasonable answer for a 7 year old to buy into. 

Though the pinches from Edgar's sharp claws catching into his skin (do Rose and Kanaya ever trim their cats nails?) tackled his thoughts back and disorganized them. 

"Did you train him to do this or something," Dave mumbled, lifting his foot away from Edgar only for the cat's paw to follow. "Jesus christ." 

"Edgar just does whatever he pleases," Lilith mewled in such a snarky voice, Dave swore he'd come across that type of tone before growing up. "Answer the question." 

"Okay, okay, I know through my uhhh," Dave hesitated, beginning to make gestures with his hands. "Uncle senses. Yeah, uncle senses." 

Lilith looked at him quizzically, which Dave took as a sign to continue rolling this snowball of a statement. 

"When you were born, paradox space granted me this sixth sense only cool uncles like me have so Dirk doesn't have it by the way don't ask him about it, it's to protect their nieces and nephews while their parents are busy. Basically, my spanking new uncle sense helps me detect if either of you or Spica are in distress or need something and shi- and stuff, it goes hand in hand with my dad senses too."

Lilith stared at him with an 'o' shaped mouth. 

"Yeah, pretty cool huh?" Dave grinned, propping up his shades. Lilith nodded, but then shifted back to a perplexed expression, her pointed ears swiveling slightly down. 

"But what's paradox space?" Lilith questioned. Dave's smirk popped like a bubble. 

"They're not teaching you that in school or something?" 

"I don't know. I'm getting homeschooled by mommy and mama now." 

Ah. Right.

Careful to not tread clumsily into perhaps something Rose and Kanaya didn't want their daughter worrying about at such a young age, Dave planned an easy, digestible explanation that wouldn't probe Lilith's questions. Lilith was a very curious girl, always tuning in to her parents conversations about adult topics they didn't expect Lilith to even remotely understand. 

To Dave's knowledge, they hadn't unfolded information about the game they played in order to create this universe they were inhabiting to Lilith; she's a smart little girl, but learning your parents and relatives had to die plentiful times to proceed with their session and become gods to manifest said universe from a frog would definitely cause more than just a little scar. And Dave understood this with ease; he had his own kid he didn't want to mess up.

Lilith knew her parents and their friends were Gods, of course, and Rose and Kanaya concluded that was the only knowledge for her to breach. 

Dave flash stepped to the drawers, retrieving sheets of paper and crayons before walking over to the coffee table, beckoning Lilith to come and sit with him. 

Once she complied, Dave grabbed a coal black crayon from the yellow box, the tip a bit worn out and the paper wrapped around the body slowly peeling off. 

He pressed the crayon onto the sheet and began trailing it from below the paper to up in a wide curved line, then repeating the same on the other side. 

Sliding out two other crayons, one also dull and the other not even a crayon, it was a red marker rather, Dave scribbled a bit more, then presented it to Lilith with a blank face.

Lilith studied it for a moment, crinkling her brows. 

"It's....big? And I'm so small."

"Yep, very big. Bigger than you, me, your parents, nana Roxy and so on."

Silence for another few seconds went by, and then -

"Is there anything out there?" 

Dave coughed loudly into his fist, pulling a blank piece of paper from underneath his and placed it in front of Lilith. 

"While we have all these crayons and stacks of paper cluttering this poor goddamn table, why don't you draw something?" Dave urged, avoiding her question _quite_ cleanly. 

Lilith looked down at her paper anyway, humming thoughtfully. Extending her arm to grab her favourite crayon from her uncle, the hybrid doodled away. Dave let out a silent breath of relief. 

After a few minutes, Lilith finished her own drawing, and proudly clasped it with both of her small hands and showcased it for Dave to see. He raised his shades up to his forehead, before Lilith would inevitably ask him to do so. 

"Cute, I give that an A++, you passed art class and earned a spot on the fridge," Dave praised. "But what's with the connected letters?"

"It's cursive handwriting!" Lilith clarified.

"Like your moms' writing?" 

Lilith nodded enthusiastically at this. Dave wasn't a pinch of surprised; like mothers, like daughter, he supposed. 

"Show Rose, I'm sure she'll adore the everloving hell out of the portrait, drawn by her dear daughter nonetheless. Probably will hang it up in the museum of kiddie drawings, handcrafted by little creatures." Dave rambled on. 

A smile accompanied with a bashful very pale green blush painted Lilith's features. 

"Do you have any drawing requests?" Lilith asked, prompting Dave to plant his elbow on the table and lean his head onto his hand. 

"Me." he answered, shades dropping perfectly back onto his face in a smooth transition. Lilith shook her head in response. 

"Aw, come on."

"Something else, uncle Dave."

"Okay, how abouuuuttt......a setting, like, what did you and mama Kanaya do last week." 

Lilith thought for a moment, tapping her claw against her chin as Edgar padded towards and settled into her lap. 

"Oh! I know!" Lilith beamed, slamming her crayon and attention right back down to a new fresh paper, moving her previous art aside. 

"Me and mama went out last week and we saw a _really_ pretty cat." she told him while she doodled two circles, both in different height levels. 

Another couple of minutes, and Lilith was done, raising the paper again to show Dave. 

"Damn that's adorable, you're aboutta make a grown man cry." Dave said, despite his monotonous voice, he dramatically placed his palm to his chest for effect. "But you sure this ain't about to make Edgar and the other army of cats here a lil jealous?"

Lilith giggled. "I know I have cats back at home too, like Edgar and Cythlla, but I really love all cats."

Dave slid her paper over to him while she was distracted, looking down at the drawing closely. "Really?" he hummed, moving his hand slowly to the extra red crayon. 

"Mhm, I mean, I've always been surrounded by them ever since I was a baby, and mama says our cats always liked me back too." Lilith said warmly, scratching between Edgar's ears. 

"Hey, look at this." Suddenly, Dave passed Lilith back her drawing. The hybrid examined it innocently, before a disgruntled look washed over her. 

"Uncle Dave!!"

A laugh sprung up from Dave's throat, uncontrollable and loud it nearly scared Edgar. 

"You messed with my drawing!"

"I gave it - AHA, gave it a fellow artist's touch and added swag to it with dave cat, you don't get no free collabs from me unless you're family." Dave tried calming his laughing fit, but it kept pouring out each time he put on a blank expression and looked Lilith in the eye. Strilondes were overflowing with stupendous artists, weren't they?

"But I wanted to show-" before Lilith finished her sentence, sounds of the doorknob clicking and twisting caught her attention on a whim; then finally entered in Kanaya.

"Mama!" Lilith jumped up to her feet, her glow turning on as she bee lined into Kanaya's welcoming arms. 

Warm giggles spouted out of Kanaya, a fanged smile to match her daughter's caressing her while she scooped her up off the floor. 

"Hello, my little love," Kanaya greeted, tangling her fingers into Lilith's hair. "Your mother and I made sure to buy you that pumpkin bread you love to snack on."

"And a few other things as well." Rose commented, passing by with two bags in her grasp. 

"Did anything occur with Spica? Is she awake?" Kanaya asked Dave as she lowered Lilith down, to which the blond shook his head. 

"Slept through the entire day, no troubles in here when uncie Dave is on duty." Dave reported, getting up from the floor. 

"Spica's bones are okay too!" Lilith peeped, much to Dave's dismay. Kanaya shifted into confusion, her eyes flitting to Dave for an answer, who immediately paled. 

Rose placed the plastic bags onto the table with a heavy _thump,_ beginning to extract all the items inside. As soon as a white and purple pigmented packet was exposed to Lilith, she quickly dashed to Rose without a concern to Kanaya's inquisition to Dave.

"Don't think I omitted to buy your favourite juices." Rose smirked, unlatching a box from the packet and handing it to her daughter. 

Lilith excitedly ripped the straw open, missing the hole where the straw should be poking through for a few stuttering moments. Once the white plastic punctured it, though, she thanked the heavens above and the para-something as the refreshing sweet grape juice splashed onto her tongue. 


End file.
